CDA ready to help residents apply for grants

Friday

May 23, 2014 at 2:00 AM

City grant application season has arrived, and Valerie Maginsky, new executive director of the Port Jervis Community Development Agency, is looking for public input and ideas about ways to improve Port Jervis.

Jessica Cohen

City grant application season has arrived, and Valerie Maginsky, new executive director of the Port Jervis Community Development Agency, is looking for public input and ideas about ways to improve Port Jervis.

She can write grant applications for business development as well as infrastructure, public facility improvement, and low- and moderate-income housing downtown.

For Port Jervis residents who have an idea for a business or a plan for expanding an existing business, money may be available from the 2013 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) left over from last year, as well as new CDBG funds this year. Small businesses and micro-enterprises, which have one to five employees, including the owner, are eligible, Maginsky said.

She noted that opportunities are afoot for building businesses around new recreational facilities, including hiking trails, swimming, and the much-anticipated whitewater park.

Assistance is available at the CDA for refining ideas to include in grant applications.

"We'll help if we can, or direct people elsewhere," Maginsky said.

Money is also available for developing low- to moderate-income housing, particularly apartments in the area of Sussex and Front Streets and Jersey Avenue.

Maginsky said the CDA has different ways to put a package together for someone who wants to develop apartments with grant money assistance, perhaps using savings as equity.

CDBG funds are also available for public works and infrastructure repair. Where public facilities have structural obstacles that prevent access — particularly for senior citizens, children, and the disabled — grants are available to rectify the situation.

As for infrastructure, "Storm water is a big Port Jervis issue," Maginsky said, "providing drainage for intense rain that comes with big storms, or even, like last week, several days' worth in one day. Businesses won't settle in places that flood."

A public hearing for grant applications will take place before the next council meeting on May 27. Applications are due June 16.